


Dreaming

by dreamiflame



Category: Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Genre: Established Relationship, Multi, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2003-12-21
Updated: 2003-12-21
Packaged: 2017-11-21 23:36:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/603309
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamiflame/pseuds/dreamiflame
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Elizabeth has a nightmare.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Dreaming

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to Sara for looking it over for me.

Elizabeth is dreaming.

She is four years old, dancing in her white under dress at the edge of the water. The sand is burning hot to her small feet, and the water shockingly cold, so she makes a game of leaping from one to the other, laughing all the while. Further up the beach her mother lies stiffly on a large blanket, fully dressed and very pale. Her mother's stomach is stretched tight and full beneath her dress, and when Elizabeth had put her hands on it, something inside had struck back. Her mother says that Elizabeth with have a brother or sister soon, and Elizabeth is still trying to decide which she'd like.

A noise behind Elizabeth makes her turn, the sand growing warm beneath her chilled toes. The white sand around her mother's blanket is stained red with blood, and Barbossa's monkey climbs its scaly way out of her stomach. Barbossa himself laughs horribly, leaning over Elizabeth's mother's body. Elizabeth cannot help herself, she screams, backing away, only to find that the water is now very far below her, and she is falling, falling, and the water is sharply freezing as it closes over her head. Elizabeth feels as though she has been kicked in the chest, she cannot breathe, and the surface is too far to reach, and getting further away. She tries to draw breath to scream again and suddenly air fills her lungs and she is awake, aware of tears falling salt and hot from her eyes. A nightmare, then, and Elizabeth shivers, wrapping her arms around her knees.

Will jolts awake, his arms joining hers around her shaking frame. "Shh," he soothes, rocking her like the gentle ocean, like the mother whose loss is suddenly painfully sharp again. He doesn't ask what she dreamed, and Elizabeth is both grateful and annoyed by that. She doesn't want to speak of it, but it might do her well to.

Behind her, Jack shifts, his eyes glittering fey in the dim light of the stars. "Bad dream?" he slurs, more asleep than not, and Elizabeth wraps her hands around Will's arms and nods. With a faint jingle of beads, Jack uncurls from his position around the pillows and drapes himself over her back, warming the length of her.

"Don't worry, love," he breathes, moist air warm on the side of her neck. "We won't let any nightmares carry you off."

Will's hands are trapped between her back and Jack's chest. Ineffectively, he pushes at Jack, then gives up, drawing Elizabeth closer. "We won't," he agrees, and it's an oath, Elizabeth can tell, one he would take as seriously as their vows or their promises to Jack.

"You're our treasure," Jack says, or Elizabeth thinks he does, but it's so soft that the hair on her neck is barely stirred. She could have imagined it, but the tight squeeze Jack gives her serves to prove its reality.

Comforted, Elizabeth rests her head on Will's shoulder, letting her husband take some of their lover's weight. Jack isn't light, but neither is he unbearably heavy, and his heat combined with the brush of his hair beads is a comfort. "I dreamt of my mother," she says quietly, trying to divorce herself from the horrific realness of the dream. "Barbossa was there, and he killed her. Then I was drowning."

Jack snorts. "We need to teach you to swim, love."

If she twists she can just manage to glare at him over her shoulder. "I can swim, Jack Sparrow," she replies tartly, and he winks at her, pressing his lips to her bare shoulder. "I'll wager you can't swim in a corset either."

Will laughs, and she turns back to him, belatedly releasing the death grip on his wrists. "That would be a sight, Jack," he says, and Elizabeth feels a giggle rising in her chest at the image. She suppresses it for a moment, years of habit making her tamp it down, before recalling herself to her situation. It morphs into a full-throated laugh when she sets it free, and Will's smile matches her own.

Teeth and metal against her skin, and Jack laves the gentle nip with his tongue. "Can we sleep now?" he asks, a thread of whining woven into his tone. Exhaustion steals over her and she nods, covering a yawn. Will pushes again at Jack's chest with his trapped hands, and this time the pirate captain releases him, pulling Elizabeth down to curl around her. Will snuggles in as well, tugging the sheets up around the three of them.

Elizabeth lays tangled in white linen and male skin, watching the moon. The terror in her dreams is no match for the reality of the love in her life, and she smiles as she drifts back to sleep.


End file.
